Laura T. Starks

Laura Starks is the Charles E. and Sarah M. Seay Regents Chair of Finance, Associate Dean for Research, and Director of the AIM Investment Center in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. Her teaching interests include global financial strategies, investments, valuation theory, and financial management. Her recent research focuses on the evaluation, compensation and performance of portfolio managers and the role of institutional investors in markets and corporate governance.

She has received a number of awards for her research including the 1996 Smith Breeden Distinguished Paper Award from the Journal of Finance, the 1997 Western Finance Association Best Paper in Corporate Finance Award, the 1998 Financial Management Association Best Paper in Corporate Finance Award, 2001 Journal of Financial Research Outstanding Article Award , the 2003 and 2004 Financial Management Association European Meetings Best Paper Award, and the 2004 Fama-DFA Second Prize for Best Paper Published in Journal of Financial Economics.

She is co-Editor of the Review of Financial Studies and has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Services Research, Journal of Financial Research, Financial Management, International Review of Finance, Contemporary Finance Digest and AB ANTE, Estudios en Direccion de Empresas. She has served on the Boards of Directors of the American Finance Association, the Financial Management Association and the Western Finance Association. She is Past President of the Financial Management Association.

Professor Starks serves as an independent director for TIAA-CREF Mutual Funds, CREF Retirement Account, and previously for USAA Mutual Funds. She also serves as the Chairman of the Investment Advisory Committee for the Employees Retirement System of the State of Texas.

Keith C. Brown

Keith Brown currently holds the position of Allied Bancshares Fellow and Professor of Finance at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, where he specializes in teaching Investments, Portfolio Management and Security Analysis, Capital Markets, and Derivatives courses at the MBA and Ph.D. levels. He is also President and Chief Operating Officer of The MBA Investment Fund, L.L.C., a private capital appreciation fund managed by graduate students at the University of Texas.

Keith is the co-founder and Senior Partner of Fulcrum Financial Group, a portfolio management and investment advisory firm located in Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. Keith currently serves as an advisor to the Board of Trustees of Teacher Retirement System of Texas and as Associate Editor for Financial Analysts Journal and Journal of Psychology and Financial Markets. For five years he held the position of Research Director for the Research Foundation of the Association for Investment Management and Research.

For more information on Keith's research and professional background, please follow the link to view a biographical sketch and curriculum vitae.